I Had a Racial Experience that Sounds Racist in American-ese
It actually was racist, but in a good, loving, and happy way.
I stopped over at Octavio’s house to talk over our plans for the day. He and I were standing on the front porch, having a smoke and talking. I heard his wife calling from inside the house.
I stomped my feet to signify ‘clean,’ and went inside. I saw Malala, the wife, disappearing into the back bedroom. But then I heard her laugh from behind me. She was sitting in her usual spot and waving her finger at me, laughing.
I started to say, but she interrupted me, saying “You thought my daughter Milagro was me, didn’t you?”
I said yes — I wasn’t expecting to see her and that it was a shock to find two beautiful women in the house! I walked over to her and gave her a hug and kissed her hair.
She was still laughing. I stood up and then stroked her arm. I said, “You have the most beautiful skin. So smooth and dark, so negro.”
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You have to know, American readers, that all conversations in my village are in Spanish. And in Spanish, black is negro (a black woman is negra). It refers to blackness in general and to Caribbean people who are originally from Africa.
There is some racism in Panama, but not much, and if anything it’s aimed at White U.S. Americans like me. But I have noticed that black neighbors are somewhat shocked when I say hello to them as I pass in the street, and sometimes compliment and wave to their children.
Panama is fairly dark-skinned, with a melting pot of ancestries. They mostly don’t matter because we’re all Panameños here. Chinese, Indians, Indigenous Natives, German-Americans like me, Italians . . . And even the 20 or 30 expats living in this area never speak anything but Spanish. All Panameños here.
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That was about all — it was a small, Latin-American vignette. I ended our conversation saying that it was amusing that an American man would be so pleased with a beautiful negra for a neighbor. That Americans are uptight about white and black people mixing, loving each other.
Fred
